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When Macao’s English-medium university meets Mainland students’ mindscape

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Abstract

With the globalization of higher education, the tertiary institutions in Macao have adopted English as the main medium of instruction in order to strengthen their competitiveness, having attracted a large number of Mainland Chinese students. However, little has been known about their experiences and perceptions of English use in Macao, especially in English-medium universities. In this regard, this paper takes an integrated approach of language survey and interviews, examining how Mainland Chinese students use English in different settings and perceive their English use in Macao by looking into the students studying at the University of Macau. It is found that Mainland Chinese students use English mainly in the academic-related settings inside campus, yet rarely use English in non-academic-related settings. Also, English is infrequently used due to the dominant use of Putonghua. Moreover, the paper discusses the implications for how English-medium programmes help improve Mainland Chinese students’ English learning and use, along with the practical suggestions for the universities and Macao government.

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Notes

  1. According to Yee (2001), Macanese refer to not only the people of mixed Portuguese and Chinese blood, but also the descendants of inter-racial marriages between Portuguese soldiers and indigenous women in former Portuguese colonies in Africa and South and Southeast Asia. However, in its narrowest sense, Macanese are local-born Portuguese (Koo 2004).

  2. As defined in 2016 By-census, usual language is “[t]he language an individual mostly used at home” (DSEC 2017, p. 37).

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  1. Department of English, Shenzhen University, 3688 Nanhai Revenue, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

    Kun Zhang

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Correspondence to Kun Zhang.

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Zhang, K. When Macao’s English-medium university meets Mainland students’ mindscape. Tert Educ Manag 26, 345–362 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11233-020-09056-y

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